Spanning some 3500 years from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, this visual history describes the armies that fought on the battlefields of the classical world. Martin Dougherty explains how the composition of those armies changed as different cultures rose and fell from prominence and as tactics and technology advanced, from the first organized armies of the ancient Near East to the so-called "barbarian" hordes of Goths, Huns, and other Europeans who precipitated the fall of the Western Roman Empire. These soldiers, their equipment, and their tactics are also portrayed in line drawings and color photos, painted illustrations, and battle maps.